This is something that we've brainstormed on the Allspark a few times. So say there's a toy of Hot Shot. Hot Shot gets redecoed as Springer. Evac also gets redecoed as Springer. It's happened!

But does that mean that through the transitive property, Hasbro could do a Hot Shot from an Evac or vice versa, and it would be totally valid? What if we take that to extremes?

What happens is that we have this chart. Because taking things to extremes is what fans do best!

And it's an idea that me and my friends have nurtured from time to time. It's a geeky idea. How else could we know that a redeco of Shockwave into Small Foot is a valid idea? But then Shellspark had to go and start making a chart. And that's when jive got real. He had some different rules from mine, so I made my own chart, with my own rules. He should post his chart in this thread as well. One thing I like about his rules is that, since he includes some cross-univeral doppelgangers as the same guy, he can travel from G1 Soundwave to Cybertron Soundwave and from him to alllllll of the jets. It's amaaazing. You can also get to Animated with those rules.

But this is my chart. #wiigii! and LiquidVelcro! helped me fill a few holes in it, and, of course, Tfwiki is always a helpful resource.

I've removed the cross-continuity jumps on mine for a few reasons. First, I was having a hard time coming up with a good way to clearly and consistently show the jump that was being made. Second, it was taking a little too much room and I wanted to keep the chart to a more easily navigatable size (I did, however, keep an expanded version for my own amusement). And, finally, the cross-continuity jumps were often unneccesary, either connecting two characters who had other paths between them or only bringing in a few more characters. I wasn't sure it was worth it just to, say, bring Arcee, Tarantulus, Black Arachnia and Crystal Widow into the collective. The Soundwave example is really the only link that would have been of any note.

That one's fuzzy. It's possible Furman didn't realize that the toy's name belonged to the Darkwing/Dreadwind combiner rather than to Darkwing, and so in his mind he was just upgrading one guy to his new body. An accidental repurposing. That one's up to personal interpretation, I'd say.